Page:Admiral Phillip.djvu/122

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96
BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

the Lieutenant-Governor's conduct, as it appears from the evidence of several of his officers, when Captain Campbell refused the duty of the Criminal Court, bring this settlement to touch on the moment of a general confusion.'

Then he alludes to the incessant grumbling of Ross about the bad treatment his detachment had continuously received, and expresses the opinion that the soldiers are much more comfortable than they had reason to expect.

Ross returned to England by the same ship that brought formal acknowledgments of some of these letters. In his reply, Lord Grenville stated his strong disapproval of Ross's conduct, but took the precaution of intimating that this opinion had been formed subject to what the defence might have to say. Phillip, feeling that he had been moderate in his statements, answered the Secretary of State in very plain language:—

'As your Lordship's letter of the 19th of February 1791 has the following words, "The proceedings of Major Ross and Captain Campbell according to your representations," I beg that your Lordship will permit me to say that the representations I have made of the conduct of those officers are just and impartial, and which do not admit of a doubt. I believe Major Ross's or Captain Campbell's friends could not have represented their conduct in a more favorable point of view, without having deviated